McDonald's Still Wants to Be the New Starbucks

McDonald's was once known as a "restaurant" where Americans could purchase, at reasonable prices, hamburgers the size and flavor of air hockey discs. Those days are gone. Fast food is a loser's game. McDonald's now aims to be the new Starbucks.

Why? That is for the great minds of the McDonald's corporation to know. The facts are that McD's has been pushing coffee hardcore for years now—but, according to a new Bloomberg report, results have not been as smashing as Ronald would have hoped. Now, with business growth stalled and the stock price trending down, McDonald's has decided to double down on its "Order Lots of Coffee With Your Fries" strategy.

One of the chain's top priorities is boosting "coffee-driven visits," according to a document laying out the
company's 2014 to 2016 U.S. strategy. In a Jan. 28 memo, U.S.
operations chief Jim Johannesen and U.S. brand chief Kevin
Newell exhorted franchisees to deliver "a gold-standard cup of
coffee with every visit." Earlier this month, in a webcast for
restaurant owners, McDonald's vowed to become the "envy" of
rivals and said Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) was leading the "coffee wars."

Maybe Starbucks sells more coffee because Starbucks is a coffee shop and McDonald's is a restaurant whose signature burger features three buns slathered in nasty Russian dressing mixed with mayo and who wants to drink coffee with that? Just at thought.